Current Group

Current Group’s Smart Grid - an intelligent electric distribution grid - benefits utilities, consumers and ecology. It allows consumers to manage their own electricity usage; enables the electric utility to monitor and better manage its grid; results in reduced costs, increased reliability, security and environmental improvements; and increases broadband competition by providing a third pipe alternative to cable and DSL

Current’s technology is helping to solve a serious present and future problem. Electric demand in the United States is forecasted to increase by 19%, but supply will increase only 6% over the next 10 years. Approximately 10% to 20% of energy is lost on the transmission and distribution system before it reaches the end user. In addition, electric power generation produces 40% of total U.S. energy related CO2 emissions and 60% of the total growth in energy related CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2005. Coal is expected to increase from 50% to 57% of total electric production. Moreover, the last nuclear plant came on line in 1996 and nuclear power is expected to fall from 19% in 2005 to 15% of total electric production by 2030. It is anticipated that renewables are expected to remain flat at approximately 10%.

The alternatives to curb these very serious problems include building more power plants (primarily coal), assuming they can be financed and India and China haven’t taken all the supplies. The impact on the economy through outages is an estimated total cost of $120 billion per year. The use of Smart Grid increases efficiency and facilitates load control.

Studies have found that a Smart Grid-enabled, revamped power system in the U.S. could save up to 10% or more in usage ( i.e., similar to estimated level of generation by renewables); eliminate the need for $125 billion of anticipated capital improvements including $80 billion in new power generation; save customers almost $50 billion from a reduction in outages by 2025; and reduce U.S. CO2 emissions by up to 25%.

Smart Grid significantly improves energy efficiency. Working with utilities, it identifies the nature and location of losses; reduces inefficiencies in the distribution system with services such as automated capacitor bank control, load balancing and phase imbalance correction; and identifies immediately and prevents theft. Meanwhile, working with the Consumer Demand-side management, Smart Grid allows electric utilities to avoid running economically and environmentally inefficient generators to meet surges in demand. It also provides the two-way high speed communication necessary for utilities to manage demand-side management programs and enables consumers to track the benefits of their participation in the programs and to provide consumers information on their usage as it occurs and to enable real-time and other peak pricing incentives.

Finally, Current’s Smart Grid technology enables alternative energy sources. Smart Grid services provide the necessary communication and monitoring to manage and optimize a generation portfolio of highly dispersed renewable sources through real-time net metering capabilities.